The present invention generally relates to network switches, and more particularly to the architecture and structure of a network switch having leaf cards surrounding spine cards on at least two sides.
Modern computer systems have sophisticated networks, either custom or based on evolving network standards. Although some systems have processing nodes that are self-interconnected (e.g., the IBM Blue Gene line of computers), most systems are based on cabling the computing or storage elements of the system into a network comprised of external switches or routers. In the industry, a switch connects a set of networked components into a local-area network, whereas a router connects sets of local-area networks. The places where cables are attached are called ports. For the present invention, switches and routers may be referred to as network switches.
Switches are based on switch chips. Switch chips for Ethernet or Infiniband, two popular standards, are typically built of CMOS. For example, an Ethernet switch comprising 48 places, with each place allowing data to be sent and received at a data rate of 10-Gigabits-per-second, is referred to as a “48-port, 10-Gb/s switch”. Another example is a 36-port, 56-Gigabit-per-second-per-port Infiniband switch, which has 36 places where data can be sent and received as 4 parallel lanes, each at 14 Gb/s.